Tentacool Line/RSE
The only routes that have water and '''do not' have Tentacool as an available encounter are: 102, 104, 111, 114, 117, and 120. The non-route locations that do have it are: Dewford, Slateport, Lilycove, Mossdeep, Pacifidlog, Ever Grande, Shoal Cave, Seafloor Cavern, and Abandoned Ship all through both fishing (not Super Rod though) and surfing. Also, Sootopolis only through Old Rod. Tentacruel is only available in the wild in the Abandoned Ship, through surfing and Super Rod.'' Have you seen enough Suicune to know where this is going? ...Oh wait. It was Entei. I screwed up the joke. Tentacruel, however, is no joke. It might be a common encounter... heck, an omnipresent encounter, but it's definitely worth running into it. Great special bulk, good Special Attack, and just so you remember: Tentacruel is as fast as Mega Blaziken. Or Mega Charizard (both of them). Or regular Salamence. Its Attack is only slightly lower than Special Attack, so you can fairly reliably use both of its STABs. And it'll be really good at its main STAB. You can get a jelly pretty much 10 seconds after arriving at Dewford Island (not counting the time spent on Hoenn's wonky fishing mechanics). Cool and cruel, that squid will easily carry you through the region. Both figuratively and literally. Important Matchups - Emerald = * Gym #2 - Brawly (Dewford Town, Fighting-type): Resistance to Fighting might be tempting, but at this point you just don't have reliable offensive options. The fights will be long and during that time Brawly can just start setting Bulk Ups on you. And after a few of those he'll be lethal. Unless you're very unlucky you should have better options. * Rival (Route 110): Lombre and Grovyle. You're neutral to Grass and have STAB Acid. Those won't cause problems. The others... will take too long for it to be a safe or interesting battle. If you like overgrinding like mad, you might be level 25 with BubbleBeam, which would allow you to take on the Fire-types - Combusken and Slugma... but in all honesty, why would you. * Wally (Mauville City): Confusion hits hard despite Tentacool's high SpDef. Try offing it with Acid if you're at a high enough level, otherwise don't bother. * Gym #3 - Wattson (Mauville City, Electric-type): No. Stay away. * Tabitha (Mt. Chimney): BubbleBeam completely owns the place. * Maxie (Mt. Chimney): You should have grabbed the Ice Beam TM from Mauville's Game Corner. There's no reason for you not to do it. That will allow you to take on Zubat. BubbleBeam will take down the Mightyena, but very slowly. Archie's Sharpedo would take even longer, choose another mon. Maxie's Camerupt might be tempting, but it's also risky. You should easily outspeed it, but there is still a chance that your BubbleBeam won't OHKO it, unless you have good IVs and EVs. And it's packing a really powerful STAB Earthquake which will demolish your squid. Proceed with caution. Lots of caution. Unless you like overgrinding, of course - Tentacruel craps at Maxie. * Gym #4 - Flannery (Lavaridge Town, Fire-type): Evolve into Tentacruel and do exactly what the gym guide tells you: hose her down. Tentacool does well in tanking Overheat too, but it's more dangerous to use because Torkoal also has Body Slam. * Gym #5 - Norman (Petalburg City, Normal-type): You can take on the Spinda and Vigoroth, if you're out of options. Same with Linoone - you should outspeed it, and after some damage and it foolishly setting up a Belly Drum you could knock it out in the second turn... as long as Norman doesn't fully heal it and demolish you. Slaking is too dangerous. Overall, if possible, use something else. * Shelly (Weather Institute): Mightyena is not a problem. Carvanha is also far from threatening. Go own her. * Rival (Route 119): You can take out everything but Water-types (except Lombre which won't enjoy Poison moves - you should have gone to Dewford immediately after getting Surf to grab Sludge Bomb) which will take a while. * Gym #6 - Winona (Fortree City, Flying-type): Unless it's Pelipper or Skarmory, Ice Beam. Altaria has Earthquake, yes. It can take you out with a crit. It can use Dragon Dance. But statistically speaking, your chances are bigger. * Rival (Lilycove City): If it's not Marshtomp, just go for it. Unless you also want Pelipper done quickly, then let your Electric-type handle it. * Tabitha (Jagged Pass Hideout): This is not the time for Team Magma to become challenging, apparently. Sweep everything with Surf. * Maxie (Jagged Pass Hideout): The biggest threat is Camerupt, which goes down in one Surf. It speaks for itself. * Matt (Lilycove Hideout): This man is just weak. Surf the Mightyena and Ice Beam the Golbat, you're done. * Gym #7 - Tate and Liza (Mossdeep City, Psychic-type): Double battles are always risky. Too many things can go wrong there. And unfortunately, you're weak to Psychic. And your Surf is weaker, because it's a double battle. In this game it's even worse, as their leads are Claydol with Earthquake and Xatu with Psychic. If they both target you, you're done. Unless you have a really good strategy, it's just too dangerous. * Maxie and Tabitha (Mossdeep Space Center, tag battle with Steven): If you want to use Tentacruel in this fight, make sure you lead with it. While Tentacruel tears any Camerupt apart, it's not a safe switch on something with base 100 Attack and STAB super-effective Earthquake. Steven's AI seems to like setting the screens at the beginning of the fight, but crits ignore them. Lead or stay out. * Shelly (Seafloor Cavern): Just Surf the Mightyena and Sludge Bomb or Giga Drain the Sharpedo, that will do them in. * Archie (Seafloor Cavern): Sludge Bomb wrecks everything that is not a bat. Archie's Sharpedo doesn't even have Crunch. Why do those people waste our time? * Gym #8 - Juan (Sootopolis City, Water-type): There's really no reason why you should be fighting either of those two with a Tentacruel. It's Hoenn. You should have coverage against Water. Well, of course, it can always be your Tentacruel's Giga Drain. With good stats you're fine against Whiscash and can claim its hit points for great justice. Other than that, you should have better options for quick victory (except Kingdra, that might take a while anyway). Unless your preferred battle style includes tanking hits - Tentacruel is great at it here. * Wally (Victory Road): Altaria and Roselia? Not a problem. Delcatty just doesn't have a weakness to your moves, that's all that is "difficult" with it. Don't fight Magneton and Gardevoir. * Elite Four Sidney (Ever Grande City, Dark-type): Cacturne and Shiftry, weak to both Ice Beam and Sludge Bomb. The rest, while not having weakness that your squid can exploit, won't be that much of a problem either. * Elite Four Phoebe (Ever Grande City, Ghost-type): You can take on everything except her ace (lvl 51) Dusclops, which has Earthquake and is a bit of a threat to you. Fortunately, Tentacruel is bulky enough to shrug off the attacks of her other ghosts - one of her Banettes has Psychic and Thunderbolt. * Elite Four Glacia (Ever Grande City, Ice-type): Let's be honest, unless you need a special tank to slowly chip away the health of Glacia's team, use something else. If you don't have anything and time is not an issue, have fun with Giga Drain and/or Sludge Bomb. It will take a while, as they're bulky, but it's safe. Just remember to have PP-restoring moves. If you got a pile of Leppa Berries, better for you. An X Attack (for Sludge Bomb) or X Special (for Giga Drain) might help make it quicker. * Elite Four Drake (Ever Grande City, Dragon-type): Ekhm. Ice Beam Ice Beam Ice Beam Ice Beam Ice Beam. You might want to break that elaborate strategy for his Kingdra. If you don't have anything else, switch to Sludge Bomb for that one and watch out if it starts setting up - it has SmokeScreen and Dragon Dance. After some of the latter its Body Slam will be a genuine threat. And if you focus on getting rid of the accuracy drops it might use the time to make your life hard and squidless. This, of course, is not a problem if your Tentacruel has Clear Body. * Champion Wallace (Ever Grande City, Water-type): Wailord has too much HP to play around with it, use something else. Tentacruel's the same, it would just take a while. Whiscash probably will outdamage you with Earthquake. A healstall is pointless when the enemy takes more than 50% of your HP each turn. Gyarados has a double weakness to Electric, why aren't you exploiting it yet? Milotic is too bulky and it outdamages you. * Post-Game: As for the Steven battle, Skarmory is to be removed by something else. Claydol is a test of your luck - you can 2HKO it with Surf and it can 2HKO you with Earthquake, so a crit can take any of you. If you have something with Levitate, let it handle that one. Cradily won't enjoy Ice Beam. Armaldo should fall to one Surf, same with Aggron. Metagross is too dangerous. }} Moves You can get a Tentacool anywhere between levels 5 and 35, so your starting moveset may vary. The first move on the list is Poison Sting, which is just as you expect it to be. A placeholder. Level 6 gives you Supersonic, a potential table turner, known for being horribly unreliable. At level 12 you get Constrict - the absolute weakest move with a base power in existence. Then you get a better STAB at level 19 - Acid. You definitely want an improvement over it later, but until that point, it's a usable STAB. Speaking of STAB, get to level 25 and receive a free BubbleBeam. Those two will be your best STABs for a while. Level 30 gives you Wrap. Sorry, it's not Generation I. Funny thing is, Tentacruel also learns Wrap at 30. So, if you evolve it then, it'll try to learn it twice. Not worth any of the attempts. At level 38 Tentacruel gets Barrier. You don't really need it, as you shouldn't walk (swim?) into situations where you need Defense buffs more than dealing damage. Speaking of Defense, Screech is the move that comes with level 47. Also a bad idea, as you shouldn't be needing it and your teammates should be able to set up themselves, if they require it. Last level-up move is Hydro Pump at 55. Pretty much the same Hydro Pump we all know, strong, inaccurate, and with its low PP only really good in boss battles. In the TM department... HM03, Surf. There's nothing else you can start listing TM compatibility of Tentacruel with. It's the best thing you can ask for. Another obvious choice is Ice Beam - come on, it's a Water-type. Of course it learns Ice Beam, appreciates it, and makes you appreciate the decision. The only offensive Poison move you get from a TM is Sludge Bomb - if you want to use both STABs, go for it. It's the strongest Poison move, after all, you wouldn't need anything else. Giga Drain is an interesting option - you don't need coverage against Rock or Ground, but when in doubt you might want to switch Tentacruel on a Water-type opponent to shrug off their attacks and make their hit points join the better side. If you want to slowly chip down someone's health, give them a nice plate of Toxic. Unfortunately, there's no benefit for the Poison-types using Toxic, so it's just stating the obvious (as everything that can learn TMs can learn Toxic), but if you just need to take down something annoying that has special moves (Juan, what Juan), that might be your strategy. Physical moves like Return are not recommended, as Tentacruel fares best with special or its secondary STAB. And of course, if you happen to already have a Water-type (you might want to change your mind) ekhm you can still have your squid be your flagship, learning not only Surf, but also Waterfall and Dive, not that useful in battle (because Surf exists), but very important in Hoenn. Tentacruel can also carry Cut, if you need it to do so. Tentacool can also learn all four of those HMs. Recommended moveset: Surf, Ice Beam, Sludge Bomb, Giga Drain / Hydro Pump / Toxic Other Tentacool's stats Tentacruel's stats * What Nature do I want? Anything that lowers your special stats is undesirable. Other than that, lowering your Speed might be a bit of a hindrance. * Which Ability do I want? Clear Body is best. It protects Tentacruel from the pesky stat drops induced by moves such as Screech or Sand-Attack and, while situational, it's certainly more useful than Liquid Ooze, as you won't be seeing very many -Drain moves in Hoenn anyway. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? Flannery tops at 28 in Ruby/Sapphire, 29 in Emerald. Tentacool evolves at 30. Getting yourself a Tentacruel for Flannery would be a really good idea, especially with how helpful it'll be against her. * How good is the Tentacool line in a Nuzlocke? It's great. A Water-type, bulky, learns all the moves it needs, laughs in the face of many bosses. Grab your Old Rod and get one today. Just carry it through the initial dangers and make the world welcome our squid overlords. * Weaknesses: Ground, Electric, Psychic * Resistances: Fighting, Poison, Bug, Steel, Fire, Water, Ice * Immunities: None * Neutralities: Normal, Flying, Rock, Ghost, Grass, Dragon, Dark Category:Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses